Chef's Tasting Table

Not long ago the tasting menu or prix fixe was the way diners got to experience the restaurant’s best expression of its food. Now it has gone the way of the turquoise-inlay bolo tie. What’s one-upped le menu -- food geek-wise -- is eating at the chef’s bar or table; that is, being served by the chef or chefs at a table right there in or near the kitchen. Want to be sure the chef had a hand in your food and wasn’t off signing cookbooks and DJing parties? This is for you.